Convert avi to mpg2 then to vob using permier 6.5 or other?

[Steve Mackay]

I've used permier 6.5 to edit a movie from Mini DV. It is 70 minutes long and I need to make a DVD from it. Anyway I used the Premier 6.5 to export the movie to DVD (essentially creating an mpg2 file).

This conversion seemed to add horizontal lines essentially feathering the edges during high contrast scenes. I thought the mg2 file was going to be DVD quality but it looks terrible.

Anyway then I have a friend at work who has a DVD burner and so I copied the mpg file to regular cd (it took 5 CD's) by splitting the mpg2 file using winzip.

Anyway when my buddy went to put it onto a DVD he told me he needed to convert it to a .vob file. Anyway this conversion took 36 hours and lost even more quality. This sucks as I have a perfectly good Mini DV quality that I was trying to preserve.

These are the questions I have:

1) In general what is my best method to get an avi file to DVD by maintaining the quality?
2) Why does an mpg2 file need to be converted again to a .vob file?
3) What is a vob file?
4) Is the premier 6.5 mpg2 converter just no good? My buddy at work said I should use a program called tmpgenc instead.

Thanks for your help.

Steve

[Trust_No_1]

First of all - don't panic! I (and plenty of others on this forum) have been creating DVDs with a similar set up so your configuration does work.

1) In general what is my best method to get an avi file to DVD by maintaining the quality?
You need to export your AVI to MPEG using the in built MPEG Main Concept Mpeg2 encoder - export timeline -> Adobe MPEG encoder. Make sure you use the correct template - choose the high bitrate one. Make sure you have set the fields setting to "lower" which is the default for DV. Anyway it needs to match whatever field value you had for the DV AVI file. This is the reason for the "combing" effect.

2) Why does an mpg2 file need to be converted again to a .vob file?
These are the only file types recognized by DVD specification.

3) What is a vob file?
Video Object file - it consists of audio and video data all rolled into one large file.

4) Is the premier 6.5 mpg2 converter just no good? My buddy at work said I should use a program called tmpgenc instead.
The Adobe MPEG encoder is one of the best available. You do not need to use tmpenc.

You need to check your settings and read the Adobe documentation (especially the MPEG encoder help).

You need a DVD authoring app (or equivalent) to make DVD's. You should provide more details about your set up. The guides in this forum are also a good way to get up to speed.

[Steve Mackay]

Thanks for the quick response. Hmmm I see. When I exported the time line I hit the DVD button but then went into the advanced options and cranked the sample rate and bit rate up to max (on the advice of my work buddy).

Hmmm I'll try it again and read up on some of the help files on premier 6.5

As for my specs I presume you mean computer specs. I'm running an Athlon 1700 processor with a RAID mother board. I have 512 Mb of ram my raid is set to 0 (stripe). Graphics card is a Nvidia Gforce256. I have my OS and all my programs running off my primary hard drive that is a 7200rpm ATA 100 drive. All my movie scratch discs and storage is on the 2X 40Gb (RAID drives both 7200 ata 100).

I'll try again tonight - it just takes for ever to export to mpg2 - 3+ hours.

I'm thinking of getting a DVD burner but I am not convinced they have all the issues with compatibility ironed out.

Steve